Most people asking this question are looking for a way to earn extra income or make a transition that will allow them to work from home.  There are plenty of people who make a decent living selling on eBay, but you would be wise to do a bit of research before you quit your day job and buy a truck load of overstocked merchandise from someone.

What Sells?

Of course, I think the easiest place to start is with selling vintage and antique items.  You don't have to be an expert, but you should be willing to do some research.  In fact, checking out this website or looking up older eBay auctions on your own can save you a considerable amount of time, money and wasted storage space.  Back when I first started getting into selling on eBay, I purchased almost anything that I thought looked "vintage" and I ended up with a lot of unsellable junk.  The estate sale people loved it when they saw me coming.

There are not that many categories on eBay where you will hit a home run every time you list.  In fact, I doubt that such a category truly exists unless you have a limitless supply of very high quality items that you can provide for a price which sells but still makes you some money.  There are people who go the route of using dropshippers, but that means that you are pretty much guaranteed a heavy dose of competition which in turn will drive your profits down.  At least by selling vintage and antique items, you know that they are not being churned out by the thousands every day by a company in China.

So where to start?  Well, a very general place to get things started is your own home.  If you have built up collections of anything, old or otherwise, you can often sell them as a lot (together) or split them up individually.  Media collections like CDs and DVDs are an example of this, but so are things like old pins or buttons!  If you have any type of memorabilia, it is usually worth checking out on eBay as well.

One word of warning for you. Don't judge whether or not what you have is worth anything simply by looking up people or companies who act as eBay listing agents.  They act as middle men for people who want to sell their things on eBay but don't want to do the listings themselves.  These companies make their money by listing other people's items for them and then keeping a commission.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but because of the nature of eBay selling, they usually only will accept things that they know will end up making it worth their time invested.  That means if they think they can't get at least a hundred bucks or so out of the auction, they won't even take your item.  I don't know about you, but if I'm selling something on my own, I'm fine with a $75 profit for each item.  Even less than that to be honest.  They often have a long list of things that the won't accept for sale.  These lists often include a lot of items that actually will sell on eBay, but not for hundreds of dollars.

Here is a real life example for you.  I saw on one of these lists that the re-sellers would not accept anything related to NASCAR.  Not sure why, but probably because they assumed the market was flooded with low priced merchandise.  It just so happens that I picked up a 100% leather NASCAR jacket at a yard sale a couple of years ago for five or ten bucks.  I believe it ended up selling for somewhere around ninety dollars.  If they don't want to be bothered with selling something like that, I'll do it all day long!  It took me about fifteen minutes to take a photo and put up a listing.  Seriously!

Take a look around your house and make a list of things you would be willing to part with as you start your eBay adventure.  Next, sign up for eBay (you need an account for the next step).  Finally, type the items on your list into the search box and check out the completed listing.  Those are the auctions that have ended.  If you find that your item sells well, but a check mark next to it.  If everything went unsold, maybe you should use an "X" instead.  This is a good starting place for anyone thinking about earning some extra money and it will give you a little bit of an idea about what sells well on eBay.

I'll keep writing more about this and other eBay related topics as the site grows.  This is just some general information get you started.  Go ahead and get started.  You might be surprised to find that you have some pretty valuable stuff just sitting around!